(THE BLOG)

HALLI CASSER-JAYNE - bio
RED, WHITE 'N TRUE™
AN ODE TO HOWARD BEALE
Posted, September 22, 2008,  12:01 p.m

     Share on Facebook

Show Your Support, Buzz Up this Article 

Transfixed, confused, scared, disbelieving, Americans watch the story of their lifetimes unfold before them and entirely miss the point.

Wall Street is ablaze, requiring a $700 billion dollar bailout by the Federal Government while the CEO’s who raped and pillaged Main Street stand to walk away with Golden Parachutes their severance pay larger than most American homeowners, too many now homeless, will earn in a lifetime.

And while Americans nod their heads in disbelief, scratch their heads in confusion, pace in fear while they wait to talk to their brokers for reassurance that their investments are not at risk in this financial debacle, the public remains focused on its main concern, itself, failing to understand that the ‘me’ has become as much a problem to the future of this country as the rapists on Wall Street and their ally’s in the American Congress who together have ravaged the middle-class solely for their benefit.

Americans might see themselves the victims to a government that has forgotten that the Middle-Class (such as it is) is the backbone of American society, but they are more than victims. They have become complicit in the government’s pillaging of the masses standing by and allowing without descent for far too long, their systematic abuse by their government.

Even now Americans do nothing as Henry Paulson reads the riot act to Congress and warns them they have days to sign a bill that gives the Secretary of the Treasury more power than the President of the United States and Congress combined, which sets to bailout Wall Street but not a word about Main Street or face financial Armageddon.

Where's the anger? Why aren’t the people taking to the streets? Why haven’t I received so much as one e-mail petition demanding that the government save Main Street, not just Wall Street? Where is the anger, the disgust?

Congress is about to vote to give Henry Paulson more money than it has cost to run the war in Iraq for all these years, your money, the consequences that will be yours, but Americans stand idly by and does what they seem to do best these days…watch.

They watch their government takes care of its corporate entities and not the people the same way they watch Dancing with the Stars, or American Idol, or any TV show for that matter, as watchers not doers, watching not doing, the new American way.

Americans are behaving like the spoiled brats they’ve become. Fat and happy too long, thinking perhaps that their current discomfort is short-term or worse resigned to the untruth that this is their fate, it appears that they are like the mannequins in a store window. Life parades before them, and they, like mannequins, simply watch.

On November 4^th, America will choose a new President. This year is the year of change. Barack Obama captured the hearts and minds of America because he promised that he will provide “change we can believe in.” John McCain now says the same. Whenever things aren’t going well in this country, the change mantra surfaces, as it did with Bill Clinton who in 1992, before “It’s the economy, stupid,” became the narrative was singing the “It’s time to change America” campaign song.

But Presidents don’t change this country, and neither do our representatives in Congress. People do -- or used to. But to see that changes really are made it will take more than the pulling of a lever, and more than punching a card or pressing a touchtone screen to bring this country back to its former glory, and to give the middle class the respect it deserves.

One thing I did receive this week were dozens of phone calls from friends from all over the country, friends who are barely hanging on in this atrocious economy. They wanted solace that all would be well, that they could refinance their homes before their mortgages interest rates climbed, could get their money into safe accounts, could once again earn a decent wage (everyone’s business is off), would be assured of decent, affordable healthcare, and that they wouldn’t be tossed into the street.

“What do you think Congress will do?” one friend asked. “Do you think the Dems will go along with Henry Paulson?” “I don’t want the Feds to bail out Wall Street unless they bail me out, too.”

But when I asked each caller what they were doing about it from across the wire I heard the whine, the new American mantra, “What can I do?”

The United States was not built on the words, “What can I do?”

So here’s a suggestion. Get on the phone. The first call I want you to make is to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) whose wealth is estimated at $230.98 million. Ask him to put his money where his vote is and loan the government some of that money to bailout Wall Street AND Main Street. Then hang up the phone and dial Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and ask her to loan the government some of her $225.96 million. Next, call Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and see if he will contribute to the cause his bank account of $160.62 million. How ‘bout Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) $18.71 million? Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)$10.39 million (although her campaign owes 9 mil so maybe you shouldn’t ask her). Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) $19.42 million, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) $19.64 million, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) $47.62 million, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) $52.34 million, Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) $65.49 million, Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) $78.96 million. Add it up...

Get the picture?

Of course you can’t call Barack Obama. His estimated wealth is a paltry 1.5 million, but he’s only been in Congress a few years. Elect him president and you can be assured of one thing, that soon after he’ll be a rich man and he’ll be able to help bail out the country.

Unless, of course, during his term his big spending ideas are all enacted, and then even our representatives money won’t be enough to save America.